AOTEAROA

A brief overview of New Zealand’s history generated by an AI bot.

In charting the history of New Zealand, Spellmeyer notes her intention to “uphold a standard of cultural and political neutrality” and create an account that will “honour all facets of New Zealand’s past.” In order to achieve that quixotic end, she produces this book using an AI bot, one instructed to “tread lightly on the delicate tapestry of history, embracing its complexity without succumbing to the lure of oversimplification.” Oversimplification is precisely what results, however. For the most part, this is a bland historical account that tracks the development of the island from its early Polynesian settlement through European colonization to its modern instantiation as a sovereign nation that is a “social innovator,” pushing progressive norms like women’s suffrage, state-directed welfare, and ecological responsibility. Much of the account reads like Wikipedia-esque entries with brief sections devoted to the nation’s commitment to fostering multiculturalism and its tech industry while avoiding nuclear power and weapons. Additionally, there is a discussion of Māori culture, and the ways it was affected by European imperialism. The author’s conceit of maintaining neutrality seems naïve—she still has to make decisions about how to instruct the AI bot, and those decisions aren’t somehow free of subjectivity. The AI program was also designed by people with their own perspectives and biases. The real consequence of using AI is that the writing is featureless and redundant; it’s surprising how often words like “tapestry,” “landscape,” and “fabric” are used, often to describe the same thing: “The fabric of New Zealand cinema,” “tapestry of global cinema,” “the cinematic landscape.” This sentence reads like a computer approximating human speech: “As we journey together through the pages of this narrative, tracing the contours of Aotearoa’s land and the soul of its people, we stand at a vantage point that affords us a panoramic view of New Zealand’s transformative saga.” A soulless book, shorn of personality and insight.

A humdrum history conveyed in (literally) robotic prose.